Report: Qadhafi sought Kucinich aid

The Qadhafi regime tried to get Rep. Dennis Kucinich to travel to Libya in a last-ditch attempt to stop the U.S.-backed NATO attack, a new report says.

Muammar Qadhafi reached out to Kucinich (D-Ohio) in an attempt to persuade him to visit Libya as part of a “peace mission,” according to The Guardian.

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Kucinich, a staunch anti-war advocate, was told that the Libyan government would pay for all expenses. The plan was that Kucinich would meet with senior regime officials as well as Qadhafi himself.

But as a letter from a U.S.-based lobbyist to the regime reveals, Kucinich decided not to go to Libya because he was “concerned that his personal safety in Tripoli could not be guaranteed.”

Kucinich brushed off the report, saying that he simply wanted to get both sides of the story and was trying to promote peace in the embattled North African country.

“In my efforts to end the war, I have been contacted by many parties – including members of the Qadhafi regime and some with ties to the rebels. Reaching a just and peaceful solution requires listening to all sides,” Kucinich said in a statement released by his office Friday. “As a strong proponent of the use of diplomacy instead of the use of military force, I believe it is my obligation and my right to participate in speech and debate over these critical matters.”

Kucinich and a group of other members of Congress have filed a lawsuit alleging that U.S. and NATO action in Libya is illegal.

Kucinich told The Guardian that he had held an hourlong telephone conversation with LibyanPrime Minister Al Baghdadi Ali al-Mahmoudi but ended up deciding to visit Syria, another country in the throes of protest against a violent dictator.

At first, Kucinich did not publicize his trip to Syria, in which he met with Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. Rather, he was first spotted in Damascus by a CNN correspondent.

Soon thereafter, he gave a press conference to Syrian media in which he was quoted as saying, “President Bashar al-Assad cares so much about what is taking place in Syria, which is evident in his effort towards a new Syria and everybody who meets him can be certain of this.” Kucinich later disputed this reporting, saying that his message was lost in translation from Arabic.

The Libyan regime made efforts to reach out to other politicians in the United States, with poor results, The Guardian reported. Al-Mahmoudi crafted a letter to President Barack Obama and also wrote to House Speaker John Boehner in a letter that Boehner later derided as “incoherent.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to Syria’s government instead of Libya’s in the last paragraph. This version above has been corrected.

CORRECTION: Corrected by: Austin Wright @ 08/26/2011 06:07 PM
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly referred to Syria’s government instead of Libya’s in the last paragraph. This version above has been corrected.